Lecrae Says He’s a Jacked-Up Person & Needs a Savior (Video)

In its video series “Gets Political,” CNN speaks with some of Hip-Hop’s biggest players and have thus far shared musings on life from Jeezy, KRS-One, Vince Staples, and more. Today, the news giant released its latest installment which features Houston, Texas rapper Lecrae. The self-described “Christian rapper” has steadily amassed some crossover success into mainstream Hip-Hop, thanks to the critically acclaimed (and Grammy-winning) work he’s been putting in for years, most recently his Church Clothes 3mixtape. Generally speaking, religiously-affiliated artists don’t always manage to reach the same commercial success of their more traditional, secular counterparts, but Lecrae is managing to eliminate any unsubstantiated idea Heads may have that Christian Rap is corny, wack, or watered down. And, speaking of smashing stereotypes, that is precisely what he drops knowledge about in this video.

For starters, he firmly states “I live life as a Christian and me living life as a Christian doesn’t mean I’m a sanitized person. It means that I readily admit I’m a jacked up person and I need a savior.” He also feels strongly that his own personal path of Christianity is not one meant to dictate how others should live their lives. Through his spirituality, he does not aim to “say this is the way the country’s going to run and things are going to be,” but rather to embody the teachings of Jesus Christ, who he says was about “laying his life down for the marginalized who didn’t have it all together.” His words delve into the political, as well, as he remarks on the idea much of society has that to be a practicing Christian means one is also likely a “staunch Conservative,” a Republican, or “this tree-hugging Liberal” on the other end of the spectrum. Speaking of his political activism, he says he involved himself with the protests in Ferguson because of the “pent-up anger and frustration within the Black community,” which often times resulted in misdirected outrage with no effective outcome. For example, an innocent taxi-cab driver had his vehicle’s windows smashed, rendering it unfit for use. Lecrae offered to pay for the repairs in an effort to exemplify the kind of attributes he hopes to see in others.